History

During the Ministers’ Summit held within the framework of the 14th Azerbaijan International Telecommunication and Information Technologies Exhibition and Conference in November 2008, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Azerbaijan put forward the initiative to launch a project on building of the Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM). A special Baku Declaration to create the Transnational Eurasian Information Super Highway was adopted on November 11, 2008 in Baku.

On 21 December 2009, the 64th session of the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution on Transnational Eurasian Information Super Highway (A/Res/64/186). Co-sponsored by 30 countries and adopted by consensus the resolution acknowledges the role of the Republic of Azerbaijan in coordination of TASIM.

Since April 2010, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan has established and funded an Executive Group on TASIM as a vehicle for project implementation. The Executive Group, in cooperation with a team of international consultants, created initial business concept for TASIM and negotiated establishment of TASIM consortium with the leading regional countries and operators.

In July 2011 in Gabala, as an outcome of this preparatory work, Azerbaijan hosted The First International Workshop on TASIM, with the participation of leading telecom operators from Azerbaijan, China (China Telecom), Kazakhstan (Kaz TransCom), Russia (Rostelecom), Turkey (Türk Telekom) and European Union (Pantel). A Project Secretariat was established during this meetting and the operators agreed to work towards MOU on establishment of TASIM Consortium.

The following workshops on the TASIM project held in Istanbul on October 2-3, 2011 and on 8-9 March of the next year in Budapest. The negotiations on the terms and conditions of consortium management have been continued and signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement respectively.

On 21 December 2012, to speed up the fulfilment of the project, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a new resolution (A/Res/67/194), which contributed to the update of political support of the UN for project TASIM. It should be noted that Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Canada, Germany, India, Georgia, Sweden, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Korea, Kuwait, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Moldova, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, United States and Japan were also involved in supporting the project.

In order to promote the expansion of transit routes of regional telecommunications, as well as the development of the private sector, civil society, international development institutions and intergovernmental cooperation, this resolution has supported the creation of the Eurasian Connectivity Alliance in conjunction with the International Telecommunication Institute. This, in turn, promotes policy dialogue on telecommunications transit route, regional promotion, support collaboration, increase education, and also serves to provide opportunities for the exchange of experiences and knowledge.

The political support of UN to create Eurasian Connectivity Alliance which facilitates the policy dialogue on telecommunications transit route, regional promotion and support of cooperation, the growth of education, as well as serving as the creation of opportunities to exchange experiences and knowledge has been updated with the following resolution (A/Res/67/298)adopted without a vote at the 67th session of the General Assembly held on September 4, 2013.